Cook v. Wolfendale

Decided October 15, 1870

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1870-10-15

Contract on the following order, drawn by John E. Coyle on the defendant and accepted by him : “ Please pay William M. Cook or order twelve hundred dollars, payable when house is ready for occupancy.” Trial in the superior court, before Pit-man, J., without a jury, who reported the case as follows: “ It appeared that at the time when the draft was given and accepted Coyle was building a house for the defendant, and the plaintiff knew that such was the case, although he did…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1870-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently April 1919

8 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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By the Court.

¶1The drawee of the order is liable according to the terms of his acceptance. The consideration of the order was the delivery of lumber by the plaintiff to Coyle, and not the performance by Coyle of his contract with the drawee. The plaintiff delivered the lumber, and the use which Coyle made of it was immaterial to him, not being provided for by the terms of the order. When the house became ready for occupancy, by any agency whatever, the order became payable. The evidence offered and rejected was rejected properly.

¶2Judgment on the verdict for the plaintiff.